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coudl someone explain more technical RAM stuff to me?

heyo, i'm looking to get myself some high quality pc-133 dimm's, but i don't know what these terms people use when overclocking (and talking about ram) mean like CAS, latency etc.. if someone could explain it to me and give me a general suggestion it'd be really helpful! thanks, right now i'm just running generic pc-100, does it really make a huge difference between say crucial and generic?

High quality ram is important if you are overclocking as when you go above 133 FSB only good ram will work. I cant remeber quite what CAS actualy means but dimms will either be cas 2 or 3 with 2 being the best. The performance increase depends on what you do but it seams to speed SETI up a fair bit

I think that mushkin 133 high performance revision 2 is about as good as you get.

Sorry if this makes no sence as it is 5:40 in the morning and my brain just fell asleep.

CAS = CL = CAS Latency
These 3 terms refer to the same thing which is the latency timing of the SDRAM chips. The lower being better. Currently only the most premium SDRAM (HSDRAM from EMS) markets it self as CAS 2 PC133 SDRAM. About half of the PC100 SDRAM out there will run at 124-133MHz if you set it to CAS 3. Few will if any will run at PC133 at CAS 2. On the other hand, about half of the PC133 SDRAM out there will do 133-140MHz at CAS 2.

Premium SDRAM modules such as those by Crucial may differ in only the PCB and the speed ratings on the chips. For example a generic 128MB SDRAM may have a 7ns speed rating whilst the premium brand SDRAM may be rated at 6ns and are built on PCBs made to more exacting standards.

The Mushkin Rev.2 SDRAM has been rated at 146MHz with a CAS 2 setting on one test! That's very impressive. Another test had the Mushkin top out at 144MHz with CAS 2 setting while the EMS HSDRAM managed only a 135MHz FSB at CAS 2. Here's the cavet, Mushkin's Rev 1.5 SDRAM performed just as well as the Rev 2.0 SDRAM but costs $40 less!

EMS's HSDRAM does however lay claim to the "Fastest SDRAM" title as it's built with blazing 4.6ns chips while others have chips rated at about 6ns.

If money is a factor, also consider SDRAM by chip makers Siemens and Infineon. SDRAM with chips from these makers have been rated at 138+MHz with CAS 2 settings.

Warning! Just as there are varying yields on CPUs, there are varying yields on SDRAM. Therefore your mileage may vary!

HSDRAM has 4.6 ns clock access time. It uses 7.5 ns chips
It is kinda picky on mobo. Some have it @ 2-2-2 @ 140 MHz while it will only do 2-2-2 @ less than 140 MHz on my Soyo 6BA+III (running @ 3-2-2 with Precharge @ 144 Mhz right now). I also have a stick of Mushkin rev2 @ 150 MHz with 2-2-2 and precharge on. Also, EMS officially rates HSDRAM as 3-2-2 (before it rated itself as 2-2-2), but it does 2-2-2 @ 133 Mhz for sure.

PS, before you assume your generic RAM won't do high FSB, give it a try first. Before I had generic PC 100 8 ns RAM that was manufactured by Seimens and that went upto 140 MHz without a problem. So try it out first and only fork out your wallet after you know for sure it aren't good enough.

let me into the secret of how to overclock ram..
step by step please????

*crying into his mother lap*

Originally posted by NiteOwl:HSDRAM has 4.6 ns clock access time. It uses 7.5 ns chips
It is kinda picky on mobo. Some have it @ 2-2-2 @ 140 MHz while it will only do 2-2-2 @ less than 140 MHz on my Soyo 6BA+III (running @ 3-2-2 with Precharge @ 144 Mhz right now). I also have a stick of Mushkin rev2 @ 150 MHz with 2-2-2 and precharge on. Also, EMS officially rates HSDRAM as 3-2-2 (before it rated itself as 2-2-2), but it does 2-2-2 @ 133 Mhz for sure.

[This message has been edited by NiteOwl (edited 05-27-2000).]

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yea i was sorta looking for an answer to how to set CAS etc, i've looked through my bios but only see one setting for precharge, latency, but i don't have three settings for those three numbers (and what do they mean anyways??

er and what's the difference between hsdram, just higher bus speed? does it work on a good ol bx board or do i need the new intel and via 133 chipsets?..

Yes it will work with a BX mother board but how fast you can get the FSB to take advatage of the ram depends on your Mother Board and CPU. In other words if your mother board dose not give you the option of going over 100MHZ or your CPU cannt handle it then you will gain nothing from the ram.